Cloud storage is nothing but an enterprise-level cloud data storage model to store the digital data in logical pools, across the multiple servers. You can use a hosting company such as Amazon, Google, Rackspace, Dropbox and others for keeping your data available and accessible 24×7. You can access data stored on cloud storage via API or desktop/mobile apps or web based systems.

In this post, I’m going to list amazingly awesome open source cloud storage engines that you can use to access and sync your data privately for security and privacy reasons.

Can’t write to the hard disk on a Linux or Unix-like systems? Want to diagnose corrupt disk issues on a server? Want to find out why you are getting “disk full” messages on screen? Want to learn how to solve full/corrupt and failed disk issues. Try these eight tips to diagnose a Linux and Unix server hard disk drive problems.

Today I will be talking about ansible, a powerful configuration management solution written in python. There are many configuration management solutions available, all with pros and cons, ansible stands apart from many of them for its simplicity. What makes ansible different than many of the most popular configuration management systems is that its agent-less, no need to setup agents on every node you want to control. Plus, this has the benefit of being able to control you entire infrastructure from more than one place, if needed. That last point’s validity, of being a benefit, may be debatable but I find it as a positive in most cases. Enough talk, lets get started with Ansible installation and configuration on a RHEL/CentOS, and Debian/Ubuntu based systems.

The nicstat command is top like utility for network interface card (NIC). It displays information and statistics about all your network card such as packets, kilobytes per second, average packet sizes and more. It works under Solaris and Linux operating systems.

In this post, I will explain how to install and use the nicstat command to find out stats about your NICs under Debian / Ubuntu / RHEL / CentOS Linux operating systems.

Most sysadmin will run low on disk space. Users will demand more space and you need to free space. You will find out files that’s a waste of space and delete it or move to an archive medium. But, how do you find the right files to delete that can help recover maximum space? Say hello to agedu tool (pronounced as ‘age dee you’) – it scans a directory tree and produces reports about how much disk space is used in each directory and subdirectory, and also how that usage of disk space corresponds to files with last-access times a long time ago. In other words, this command might help you to free up disk space.

I carry my Linux powered laptop just about everywhere. How do I protect my private data stored on partition or removable storage media against bare-metal attacks where anyone can get their hands on my laptop or usb pen drive while traveling?

Most embedded Linux / BSD systems such as routers, servers and nas devices comes with console interface (serial port with RS-232). BIOS can uses this, and after boot BIOS screen I/O is redirected so that you can use the device. RS-232 is also used for communicating to headless server, where no monitor or keyboard is installed, during boot when operating system is not running yet and therefore no network connection is possible. You need to use a serial cable between your computer and embedded system or server. In this post I will cover five conman utilities used for serial communication under Linux / Unix / *BSD and Mac OS X.

Gabe Newell is the co-founder and managing director of the video game development and online distribution company called Valve Corporation. He want to port 2500 game titles on Linux. But, why? First, Gabe hates Windows 8. He recently made a rare appearance last night at Casual Connect, an annual videogame conference in Seattle.